USB host controller process error

[gordon at hammy.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt)]

My Sony PCG-FXA47 laptop occasionally gets the error message:

usb0: host controller process error
usb0: host controller halted
usb0: regs: ... bunch of register values ...

The USB device is a GPS unit (with a USB-to-serial adapter lump in
the cable) recognized as ugen0.  I suspect that this error happens
because the cable connection isn't perfectly solid.

My question:  is there a way I can *UN*halt the host controller
(manually, with a userland command, which I'll write if necessary)
after it's halted, short of a reboot?  Perhaps something like

	ioctl(fd, TIOC_USB_RESET_HOST_CONTROLLER_DAMMIT, 0);

Disconnecting and re-connecting the device doesn't work (it won't
power up).

					Gordon L. Burditt